Joe wanted to look at it a bit longer but then forced himself to stop, looking up to see the giant still stalking forward rather carefully. It seemed to be attempting to peer towards the city, but seemed uncertain of what he was looking at. Huh… nearsighted? Or something else?
The giant was still well outside of his useful range, although he would be able to easily hit it now, if he chose to. The problem was that he was aiming at a giant! Anything that size was easy to hit at range. What he really wanted to do was start picking critical targets on the giant, which required it to be much closer. Joe made sure to pull the arrow with the double tag on it and knock it, although he kept his bow down, saving his arm’s endurance. Or my stamina points… Joe sighed with that.
The giant was stalking closer and closer, still obviously struggling to see what was in front of him. Joe was a bit concerned that it might be blind. If so, that would change his combat choices, but about double the distance from where he’d first set his defensive line, the giant suddenly stopped, then roared, its anger echoing across the field as a physical force, the shockwave blasting across the top of the wall. Joe was surprised to feel his clothing ruffle, then quickly became very concerned. How strong is that roar at ground zero? That’s not going to be… too good!
Joe quickly looked at the giant’s feet, and while some of the animals seemed to be staggering a bit, all of them recovered and continued on with no lasting damage that Joe could see. So… more magic screwing with the laws of physics? Everything at that giant’s feet should have turned to paste… or at least collapsed dead? Right?
The giant roared again, and Joe looked carefully at the animals, but they all seemed to be pretty unaffected and Joe grimaced, uncertain now. His mind raced, but he found himself unable to really come up with any decent changes to his plan. It was set. Or, more appropriately, impossible to change. He had to get closer to do any appreciable damage. He quickly looked to those around him.
“The giant’s roar; how bad is it if you’re right next to him?”
One of the rougher monster hunters shook his head, “Not too bad. Maybe some ringing in the ears… blood a bit…”
Joe frowned slightly but nodded. He then turned back to look at the giant, a third roar washing across the walls before it began to run. When he began to run, a lot of groans and soft cries of fear rose up amongst the people. Joe could only commiserate. The thing was getting pretty freakin’ fast for its size. If the giant hit the wall with a shoulder tackle, Joe was fairly certain he would damage the wall very badly. It took quite some time to get up to speed, much like a locomotive, but once it was going, Joe was getting a bit worried.
“Toular, tell the guards and crafters to get out. Now!”
By the time the giant was close to his first line of dead monsters, the giant seemed to be going almost thirty or forty miles an hour. Surprisingly, and luckily, the giant’s motion was quite smooth, which made shooting it that much easier. It did make sense, however, if it was a skill the giant had access to. Well… time to do it!
Joe raised the bow and sighted. First shot’s going to be crucial. Take out an eye… after that, not going to have a lot of chance cause it’ll probably defend… so… Joe sighted on the left eye of the giant, calming his breath and waiting carefully. By the time the giant hit his first line of defense, the giant was getting up close to freeway speeds, which made Joe pretty nervous.
The giant’s leg pounded into the ground. Joe breathed. Joe relaxed. Joe’s thoughts faded; lost and gone. Sound followed quickly after, then breathing, then sight. Only the giant was before him. He moved so slowly, its arms pumping hard for speed. The giant’s stride was almost complete, his rear leg swinging forward so slowly, slowing ever more as the giant began to bound up just slightly into the air with his stride, his grounded leg flicking off the ground with his toes. Now!
The arrow slipped from his fingers, sliding slowly across his knuckles and the bow, the string snapping back so slowly as the arrow fled from it. For a slow long moment, the arrow slid across his knuckles, then suddenly it was gone, flying through the air. Joe smiled. Perfect! Perfect. Right on target!
Joe dropped his bow to his side, certain of his strike. His right hand automatically pulled out another arrow, but didn’t pull his bow up, watching with certainty. The arrow slammed home directly through the center of the giants left eye at the height of his arc through the air. The giant roared in pain. A normal roar that didn’t send shockwaves through the air. His left hand went up to clutch his eye while his leading foot stumbled. Joe’s grin grew. And… down he go… wait!
The giant did stumble, his leading foot twisting and failing to gain purchase, but the giant dropped his knee instead, taking a bad short thumping hop off his knee to continue his stride. He leaned onto his right arm to hold himself up as his left was still over his left eye, but was able to press hard enough to pop back up with enough height to get his next stride under him. The stumble cost the giant quite a bit of speed, but the giant was still able to save much of his speed. OOoh… that’s… really bad!
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Joe pulled out another arrow. Right… no choice now. Hate to do this to you, but… Breathing stilled once again after a full release. Thought lost, gone before the absolute necessity to bring force to bear on the incoming wrecking ball. Sound faded and sight narrowed. Only the giant stood before him. It took longer, much longer than Joe was really happy with, but it took. The arrow released, sliding across his knuckles. This time, the certainty wasn’t there. Joe waited with some fear. The giant was now half way between his old line and his new. It was still a good couple hundred meters away, concerningly close. His arrow found its mark, however, and sank past the fletching, the soft spongy flesh he’d targeted no barrier against such a piercing attack. The arrow sank completely into its right testicle. Sorry, man… really, but… no choice!
The giant roared in angry pain again while it took a single step. The roar continued then changed, climbing rapidly several octaves when his junk slapped against his thigh coming forward. The giant attempted to power through, despite the whining cry, but when his next stride came forward and slapped against the wounded testicle, the whine faded to a gasp even as the giant dropped both hands to its groin and collapsed into the fetal position, turning into a massive bowling ball that crushed hundreds of beasts as it rolled across the ground. It landed short of the wall, well into the cleared zone Joe usually kept for the guards. OK… that was… a bit lucky, but I’m not going to complain!
“Allanar! Down the wall. Fast!”
Allanar said nothing and Joe looked over to see him staring at the curled up giant, jaw dropped. Come on!
“Allanar! Now! Gotta go now!!!” Joe grabbed the man by the shoulder and shook him gently but firmly.
Allanar came to, looking over at Joe before seeming to register what Joe had said and quickly pulled in water, wrapping it around them before tumbling over the edge of the wall. They fell quickly; fast enough to give Joe vertigo as his stomach flipped up into his throat. Despite that, Allanar maintained excellent control and settled them on the ground safely and well.
“Keep me safe, Allanar! If you can!”
Allanar quickly nodded, “Aye, eccentric!”
Joe didn’t respond, already sprinting towards the giant. The giant had landed in the cleared area on his stomach, hunched up in a ball as he carefully protected his groin. The giant ended up looking like it was bowing, face down in the dirt, with his rear mooning the whole wall. Joe smirked, laughing at what he was seeing, but didn’t stop his rapid run towards the giant. It took him about a half a minute, but the giant seemed too busy trying to remove the arrow from his testicle, roaring, whining, and rocking as it tried to remove the arrow.
When Joe came close, he slowed but continued to move quickly. Left side… left eye blinded… get to the Achilles! Joe ran up and… CRAP! He stopped and turned back to Allanar, yelling.
“Allanar! Two wedges! Quickly!”
Allanar nodded and a bubble of water broke off from around him, flying rapidly towards Joe before stopping in front of him and depositing both wedges into his hands. Right… forgot… right leg first… then left… hide in the blind side. Joe ran up to the giant, having already sheathed his bow in the ride down the side of the wall, then pulling out his massive two meter blade. Fast!
It was really much too hard to hold one handed, but in this situation, Joe was struggling to hold both the chisel like wedges and the blade. He cursed his stupidity for pulling out his sword too early, but didn’t stop his run. When he got about a half a dozen meters away, he slowed and headed to the left foot. Right… so… I can. He blinked in thought, grimacing. Infusion… this close… it can’t dodge at all, can it? That should… I can... that… seems too easy… and… maybe dumb? If it was that easy, wouldn’t… Joe grew cautious, now dithering as he tried to figure out what chance he had. The easiest thing, honestly, would be to take out his arrow and shoot the giant in the massive butt cheeks mooning him right now. His arrow would be embedded into the giant’s rear before the thing could ever possibly react. Nothing reacted until I kinda released the arrow… it should be easy, right?
Joe made the decision to slam his sword down into the dirt, cautious not to hit any stones, and also put his two wedges into the dirt as well. He began his preparations then paused. If he notices… that’s… He grimaced and picked his sword back up, cleaning it carefully before returning it to his back sheath, an effort that had him tipping the sheath forward over one shoulder with his empty hand before being able to get the blade in and then pushing the sheath back upright and letting his blade drop into it. He then pulled out his bow and arrow again, red starting to climb up his cheeks as embarrassment set in. Must look like a freakin’ idiot playing with my weapons underneath the biggest butt crack the world’s ever seen, staring straight up into… Joe ended his thoughts, not really liking where it was going and planned carefully.
Right… not a point… seems to be able to sense much more easily, so… hurricane arrow then… just my mana. Joe stilled himself, taking a deep breath and releasing before he drew the bow, holding the arrow’s fletching against his cheek. He paused, unmoving, stilled; just a natural part of the world. Then, his mana rushed up towards his arms and fled into the arrow shaft from the fletching. It streamed down into the arrowhead and began to form the twisted hurricane of power with the bulb of mana for a reservoir of power.
As soon as his mana hit the arrow shaft, the giant froze, its moans vanishing as if something twigged its attention. It wasn’t even a second later when the giant snapped up and turned its gaze towards him, its one good eye snapping to him as if it knew exactly where he was. Even more terrifying, the giant’s leg snapped out like a cannon even before it had seen Joe but was perfectly on target, powering towards him so that the sole of the giant’s heel would plaster straight into his chest. Joe’s eyes widened in terror as he released the arrow immediately. The arrow careened wildly off up at the giant’s massive rear end even as the giant’s leg pile drived directly at him.